The Indianapolis journal., 1887-07-01
A PROUD MORMON ELDER.
Exhibiting Himself and Family to an Ad-
miring Public.

! Exhibiting Himself and EamlIy 10 an AL
miring Public.
| A Mormon elder has come to town-come with
three of his wives and a selected dozen from his
| personal herd of children. There being moth
ing in the dispens sation or Joseph Smith and the
| Latter-Day Saints against dime museums, this
particular Mormon elder and his tribe. as afore-
said. occupy a platform in one OF those instltu-
tions the Bowery Babies of various growths
play about the stage, and children of mature
years have platforms for themselves. Alto
gether the spectacle is quite interesting and no
more unpleasant than the four legged baby, the
twoheaded cow any other of the long list of
monstrosities which strangely organized people
pay 10 cents to
Under the shadow of the five-toothed WHAT'S
it from Beowawee and leaning against the
japanese mermaid, whose plaster of paris vitals
have become indecately evident through wear
and tear, Elder Joshua Baker yesterday told his
story Joshua is not beautiful to look at. His
eyes are deep, hollow and close together His
skin is dark. his hair reached" inartistically
while thick growth of mustache and beard
make him less beautiful than door mat with
cousinly resemblance to Jo-Jo, the dog faced
boy. Joshua said he had received the divine
light in 1877 and had ''mormed" it ever since.
He had married his first wife many years ago in
Alabama. He moved to Utah after his conver
sion and settled on farm in the southern part
of Idaho, near Franklin. He married his second
wife after arriving there. Since then he
had married two more. His first wife died.
doubtless unable to stand poygamy. He had
been arrested under the Edmunds law and con-
victed He had spent three months in jail at
troit. and overtures were there made to him to
become a circus, as it were and ne became. He
was the father Of twelve living children and had
lost six. All his living children were with him.
Having told his story, he exhibited his wives.
The three women were seated on a platform at
the street end of the hall. Behind them stout
woman with short hair thrashed weak piano
into a state of terrified and eroaning subjectiou
as the inspection went on The first wife's par
ents, when they broke a bottle of wine over her
PROV and slid her into the baptlsmal font had
breathed. be said, the name Jane W."
Jane W." is tall woman, with an intelligent
and dignifed but not intellectual face. She was
clad in a soft brown dress. we'll made. ana wore
a cheap red shawl about her shoulders. His
hair was beside hers, and it was evident that
she was the favorte wife. She was a little i'll
at ease. and looked as il she would be much
more at home in managing farm than in sit
ting up to be stared at by mob at 10 cents
stare Baker explained that she was the first
wife, having assumed by right that position
when his actual first wife died. She was the
mother of five of his children four sons and
one daughter.
When he said Emma" wife No of the
present calendar, but No. under the old reck
oning, pricked up her ears. Emma had been
.'seaied" to him two years after he arrived in
Idaho, he said Perhaps it is well for Emma
that she was sealed sealed hand and foot to
him in that Endowment house behind the Salt
Lake tabernacle, because if she hadn't been
Joshua would surely have gotten away long be-
fore this. Emma, in fact, is badly out of draw
ing. Her left eye is bitterly at odds with her
right, and in the matter of teeth she is almost
bankrupt. When she smiles it is like a brief
and feeting glimpse of a Western graveyard in
which only one or two headstones light up
canon that is dreary, dark and solemn Emma,
too, is indifferent to the pomps and vanities of
this world. Her white sacoue was several sizes
too large. and her necktie was loose black frag-
1nent which might have been torn from the
bottom of her black dress. Emmas chief occu
patton yesterday was smiling in an apologstic
way and preventing stout and handsome =
year-old from falling off the platform, an en-
terprise to which she devoting all the intel
lectual energy of a finely developed head.
Emma has added three olive branches to
Joshuas collection, two of them being girls
Wife No. comes when you call Ann Eliza"
Ann Eliza is giddy In fact the three ladies
evince q remarkable diversity in the tastes of
Joshua. who is a many sided we'll as slabsided
traits of an old maid. She is thin, wears her
brown hair scrambled, has a high forehead,
black braided sacque, and sage green dress.
Ann Eliza is sentimental in her general effects.
and if chemically assayed would probably show
large run of poetry In h er nature. She seems
i'll adapted to Joshua. She somehow conveys
the impression that she only got in his ligat
canoe to float down the opal tinted tide of lore
because she had missed the regular steamer. and
had no other means of making the trip. How
ever that may be- Ann EliZaS smile is kind and
her weak blue eyes affectionate, and che
gently corrects the children, which seem to be
common property, just as if they were her own
She is a mother only vcariously, however, for
of the twelve not one little lamb IN her personal
property, and whenever the short-h haired lady
extracts by main force the ''Erminie' lullaby
from the piano Ann Eliza looks sadly away into
nowhere in general. and is still
The Men Who Profit by Strikes.
- D.